Pistol Creek
A stocked winter trout fishery in the middle of downtown Maryville — rainbows put into Greenbelt Lake and its creek through the cold months, in a paved city park you can fish on a lunch break. It's the series' most accessible water: a feed-the-ducks, introduce-a-child fishery that holds trout only while the winter is cold and reverts to a warmwater pond the rest of the year.
Stocked rainbow trout (winter put-and-take) · Best: the cold months, roughly December–February · Greenbelt Lake, Bicentennial Greenbelt Park, downtown Maryville · Blount County · TWRA Region IV · Community Lakes Fishing Program
→ Join the list — I’ll send the launch note when the store opens.
Overview
A downtown creek dammed into a winter trout pond.Pistol Creek is a thirteen-mile tributary of the Little River, lying entirely within Blount County. It rises from springs south of Maryville near Carpenter's Campground, threads downtown along the paved Maryville–Alcoa Greenway, and — joined by Brown Creek — is impounded into Greenbelt Lake on the north side of town before running on to the Little River. The trout water is that impoundment and the creek immediately around it: Greenbelt Lake, a shallow urban pond held by a low dam and spillway in Bicentennial Greenbelt Park, in the heart of the city. This is the most urban-accessible trout water in the series — paved greenway, parking steps away, food and a library within a short walk.
How it works, in plain terms.The lake's defining fact for the angler is thermal. It is a low-elevation, low-gradient, sun-exposed pool that holds coldwater trout only through the cold months. TWRA stocks it in winter, when the water is cold enough to keep rainbows alive and catchable; by late spring it warms past trout tolerance and the fishery reverts to the warmwater creek-and-pond it is the rest of the year. There is no dam-generation schedule and no governing streamflow gauge — the lake holds a steady pool behind its dam, and the creek rises fast and muddies after a hard city rain, then clears within a day or two.
The trout, honestly.Pistol Creek is a winter rainbow fishery — hatchery rainbows averaging about ten inches, stocked into the lake and creek through the cold months and fished as straightforward put-and-take. Fresh fish are naive and willing; as the weeks pass and survivors are caught or thinned, the remaining fish settle into the deeper, cooler pockets and grow wary. True multi-month holdovers are uncommon on a water this warm and this small. The rest of the year the water belongs to its warmwater residents — bluegill and other sunfish, largemouth bass, and the channel catfish TWRA stocks for community fishing. There are no native trout here and no native brook water; this is a managed, seasonal stocked fishery, so it carries no Brook-Trout Micro-Box.
A little history.Greenbelt Lake is a work of urban renewal. In the run-up to the United States Bicentennial, the City of Maryville set out to redevelop a stretch of light-industrial, heavily polluted ground along Pistol Creek in the heart of downtown, dammed the creek to flood the area, and dedicated Bicentennial Greenbelt Park on July 4, 1976. The roughly thirty-acre greenspace became the nucleus of what grew into the nine-mile Maryville–Alcoa Greenway — a creek that had been a civic embarrassment turned into a civic asset. The U.S. Army Corps of Engineers later carried a Section 206 aquatic-ecosystem restoration on the lake — diverting the creeks around the lakebed, dredging sediment, and rebuilding wetland habitat and streambanks — and TWRA laid a cold-season put-and-take trout fishery over the top of it.
Before you wade: Pistol Creek is gentle water with two real hazards — the lake spillway and cold-water immersion in winter. See Flow & Conditions before every trip.
Flow & Conditions
Read the water — there's no gauge and no generation schedule.Pistol Creek is a small urban creek dammed into a lake, not a tailwater and not a mountain freestone. There is no dam-generation schedule to check and no governing USGS gauge to read. The lake holds a steady pool behind its low dam; the creek above and below it is a flashy urban stream that rises fast and muddies after a hard city rain — urban watersheds shed water quickly — and clears within a day or two. Judge it by recent rain and by eye: fish the clear, steady lake and the inlet, and give the creek a day or two to drop and clear after a storm.
Two hazards worth naming. The first is the lake dam and spillway — the water deepens and moves at the dam, and the spillway lip and apron are slick; fish the dam pool from the bank and keep yourself and children off the spillway structure. The second is cold-water immersion: the trout season is winter, the water is cold, and a slip into the lake or creek in January is dangerous out of proportion to the water's gentle look. Dress for the cold, keep children back from steep or icy banks, and mind the ordinary urban cautions — road and path crossings, busy weekends, and bank ice in a hard freeze.
Flow & conditions — no live gauge here.Pistol Creek is effectively gaugeless: there is no meaningful real-time streamflow gauge governing the fishing, so there is no live number to read here. Read it instead by the recent-rain picture for Maryville and by what you can see — the lake holds a steady pool; a clear, dropping creek is good; high, fast, and muddy means fish the clearer lake water and let the creek settle. The 24-to-72 hours after a fresh stocking and a cold snap is the best fishing of the season.
In the guide — read conditions into a fishing plan.The full access-and-conditions matrix — normal lake pool, easy creek wading, the after-rain picture, the spillway hazard, and the winter-freeze cautions, with what each means for where and how you fish — is in the Pistol Creek guide.→ Join the list — I’ll send the launch note when the store opens.
Regs
License. In Tennessee, children under 13 may fish without a license. Anglers 13 and older need a valid Tennessee fishing license, and fishing for trout also requires the Trout Supplemental.
The Pistol Creek rules — a community-water creel and a winter season. Pistol Creek / Greenbelt Lake is governed as a TWRA Community Lakes Fishing Program water. The daily trout creel is five trout, with no length limit — the Community Lakes limit, distinct from the seven of the general winter program. TWRA defines the regulated water as Greenbelt Lake together with Pistol Creek from East Harper Avenue upstream to West Lamar Alexander Parkway, and fishing is permitted from thirty minutes before sunrise to thirty minutes after sunset. The trout fishing is a cold-season overlay — roughly December through February — and the water is open to general (warmwater) fishing the rest of the year.
Confirm before you go. Seasons, creel, stocking, and license rules change year to year — TWRA revises them cycle to cycle. Confirm the current TWRA trout regulations and the Community Lakes Fishing Program rules before every trip.
Official links:- TWRA trout regulations ↗- Buy a Tennessee license ↗- TWRA trout stocking schedule ↗- TWRA Region IV: 800-332-0900
Hatches
The signature "hatch": honestly, this is a stocked winter pond, not a hatch-match river — through the cold months the food that matters is small and subsurface, and the midge is the workhorse, with a sparse Blue-Winged Olive on mild afternoons and the bright stocker attractors and eggs that fresh fish key on. On a cold, bright midday, midges cluster and trout will sip them in the film along the calm lake margins — the one genuine dry window this water offers.
The full hatch & forage calendar (midge-driven December–February, the fading March shoulder, and the long warmwater off-season), the tactics keyed to each window (stocker nymphing and midging the dam pool and inlet, the winter dry-dropper, a small streamer for the better fish), and the curated Winter Trout Box and Year-Round Core Box — Zebra Midge, midge pupa, Beadhead Pheasant Tail, egg/Squirmy worm, Griffith's Gnat, and a small Woolly Bugger — plus the Warmwater & Panfish Box for the off-season, are in the guide.→ Join the list — I’ll send the launch note when the store opens.
Field
Cell coverage: Coverage across the Greenbelt is full — this is downtown Maryville, and help is minutes away, with Blount Memorial the nearest hospital. Confirm your carrier before you rely on it.
The full field plan — the winter cold-weather and cold-immersion kit, the family-and-beginner setup for an introduce-a-child trip, the light-rod rigging notes, and the shared-park etiquette that governs a busy public greenway — is in the guide.→ Join the list — I’ll send the launch note when the store opens.
Access
Pistol Creek's fishable water is a single downtown park, so the guide fixes places by named, signed landmark rather than by invented coordinates — the verifiable anchor is Bicentennial Greenbelt Park, 409 North Cusick Street, Maryville, with courthouse-side parking adjacent. The full-resolution access map covers Greenbelt Lake (the main stocking water), the dam and spillway pool and the inlet where Pistol and Brown Creeks come in (the two ends that hold the most fish), and the greenway corridor and creek pockets along the nine-mile paved Maryville–Alcoa Greenway — with the walk-in logistics, all in the guide.→ Join the list — I’ll send the launch note when the store opens.
Conserve
A reclaimed downtown creek the anglers help keep clean. Pistol Creek's story is a redemption — a polluted industrial creek turned into the city's greenway centerpiece, dredged and restored with wetland habitat and stabilized streambanks, and stewarded now by the City of Maryville and the Little River Watershed Association. The trout are the lightest, most recent layer laid over the top, and they are winter guests. The conservation priorities here are the urban ones — sediment, runoff, and litter — and the angler's contribution is mostly a matter of leaving no line, no lead, and no trash on a path walked by thousands.
Leave No Trace, on this water:- Plan ahead — the trout are a winter overlay; read the water by recent rain, watch for a fresh stocking and a cold snap, and dress for cold-water immersion.- Yield the shared ground — the Greenbelt is a downtown park first, and the busiest walking corridor in Maryville; fish the quiet early hours, give walkers, cyclists, families, dogs, and the resident waterfowl the right of way, and remember you are a guest in a public space.- Pack out every inch of tippet and leader — on a path this busy, discarded mono, fluorocarbon, split-shot cards, and fly packaging are both hazard and eyesore; carry it all out, including the snarl you'd rather not deal with.- Handle the stocked fish well — wet hands and a quick release for any you're not keeping within the five-fish creel, and keep clear of the spillway and the planted streambanks.
FAQ (answer-first)
- Q: Where is Pistol Creek?It's a small urban creek in Blount County, dammed into Greenbelt Lake in Bicentennial Greenbelt Park in the center of downtown Maryville (TWRA Region IV). The fishery is the lake and the creek immediately around it, reached from the paved Maryville–Alcoa Greenway at 409 North Cusick Street.
- Q: When can I actually fish it for trout?In the cold months. Pistol Creek is a winter put-and-take fishery — TWRA stocks rainbows through roughly December to February, and the fishing is best in the 24-to-72 hours after a fresh stocking and a cold snap, in the morning before the greenway fills. By late spring the water warms past trout tolerance and the Greenbelt becomes a warmwater bluegill-and-bass pond; fish a tailwater or the Smokies then.
- Q: Do I need a license?In Tennessee, children under 13 may fish without a license. Anglers 13 and older need a valid Tennessee fishing license, and fishing for trout also requires the Trout Supplemental. The Regs tab links you to the current rules and the license page.
- Q: What are the trout regulations?It's a TWRA Community Lakes Fishing Program water: the daily creel is five trout with no length limit — not the seven of the general winter program. The regulated water is Greenbelt Lake plus Pistol Creek from East Harper Avenue up to West Lamar Alexander Parkway, fishable from thirty minutes before sunrise to thirty minutes after sunset. Seasons and creel change, so confirm the current TWRA rules before every trip.
- Q: Is it wadeable — and is there a gauge to check?Most of the fishing is from the bank or the paved greenway edge; wading, where it happens at all, is ankle-to-knee in the shallow creek. There's no governing USGS gauge and no dam-generation schedule, so you read it by eye — the lake holds a steady pool, and the creek rises and muddies fast after a city rain and clears in a day or two. The two hazards to respect are the slick lake spillway and cold-water immersion in winter.
- Q: What will I catch?Stocked rainbow trout in winter — hatchery fish averaging about ten inches, fished put-and-take, naive when fresh and warier under pressure. There's no meaningful natural reproduction and no native brook trout. The rest of the year the lake holds warmwater fish — bluegill and sunfish, largemouth bass, and stocked channel catfish — which are the honest summer quarry.
- Q: Is this a good place to take a kid or a beginner?It's the best in the series for it — paved, lit, ADA-accessible, with parking, restrooms, and food steps away, gentle shallow water, and easy, high-catch fishing in the days after a stocking. A fly rod or a spinning rod both work here. Fish early, keep clear of the spillway, and it's a fine front door to the sport.
- Q: What's open, and what's in the guide?Open now: this overview, the read-the-water conditions and official TWRA links, the regulations, and conservation. The guide adds the full access map and walk-in logistics, the forage calendar and tactics, the Winter Trout and Year-Round Core boxes (and the Warmwater & Panfish box), and the field plan.
